GB_Amateur

Link? Please.

I'm surprised the Cibola and Vaquero perform so much differently on your modified MNB, given they are very similar detectors (both operate at 14.5 +- 0.2 kHz and both use the same ED120 Silent Search Discriminator circuit. It sounds like both had the same coil in your tests (stock 8"x9" concentric). BTW, it wouldn't be a bad idea to run the tests with no coins present. I've been surprised in the past when my in-ground testbed was giving a good high tone with a pulltab right next to a coin, thinking I was getting the coin without interference from the pulltab. But when I took the coin away I got the same high tone!! (This was ML Equionox in 4 kHz.)

Barber quarter or half dollar? (I can't quite figure out the scale on your photo.) You must be finding so many old coins that they've been relegated to relic status. I suppose it has an -S mintmark, too. You Western detectorists are so spoiled! That ornate large ring that you highlight -- could it be from a lamp? Dept. of Kansas?? I know Kansas was a territory prior to becoming a state, and enveloped all of the current state and part of Colorado (including what is now Denver). I wonder if the badge goes back to the territorial days. Good stuff, and as others have said, probably more there. Thanks for the report and photos.

That's definitely getting to the edge of detection (-- shows on some sweeps but not others). And the broadened dTID is typical of my deep coin finds, too, although my record is 9" on a USA 5 center and 8" on our 95% copper pennies and 90% silver dimes. Florida seems to be its own detecting land. I recall some of Tom Dankowski posts where he correlates depth with time in the ground. I don't know how much the soft soil and frequent rainfall has to do with it, but with a year-round growing season, if grass is cut and left to lie it seems its accumulation will build up more quickly than farther north where vegetation goes dormant for at least a few months. Nice ear, BTW.

Thanks for posting that video, but is there anything new? Almost an hour long video with a lot of fluff. I spend enough time online (mostly) reading and posting. We've already seen an in-field video of their European competition (XP Deus II) in action. I hope someone does similarly with the N/M Legend, and soon. As far as the meaning of an Easter egg, I could speculate but so can everyone else. Too bad the interviewer didn't ask Dilek.

IMO, it's difficult to interpret his statement. I can (as can we all) avoid digging iron but at the risk of leaving some goodies in the ground. Still, a decent intro in-field video. I much prefer the low-key British style of detecting videos. And I noticed that he knows the proper pronunciation of 'pewter'.

Keep in mind that the Coitek Nox 5"x10" is an open housing coil. Buying a piece of 1/32" polycarbonate sheet (I got one from Amazon) and cutting it (I used a scoll saw), then epoxying in place is a decent substitute but the top is still open.... Just realize that the epoxies that keep the skid plate from coming off at the wrong time keep it from coming off at the 'right time' too. I.e. it's one there for life.

In a recent thread regarding the soon-to-be-released (?) XP Deus 2, the value of the ML Eqinonox's adjustable ground setting (whether manual or automatic) was brought up. (That was initiated by an XP video showing that multifrequency detector's ground balancing procedure.) When the Equinox was released 3 1/2 years ago I specifically asked if the default setting of 0 had some special value, such as putting the detector into a custom balancing routine. My recollection is that I was told 'no'. My interpretation at that time resulted in the conclusion that 0 is just slightly different than its neighbors -1 and +1 as part of a m/l continuum of ground settings. It's my understanding that multifrequency capability facilitates contrasting the ground signals from different frequencies to improve performance. But does that render user ground balancing unnecessary/superfulous? When I operate the Equinox it tells me when I'm out of balance, by making extraneous noise as my coil changes its height above the ground. This is with the ground balance setting non-zero based upon previous (maybe one or more hunts ago!) settings. I've never then reverted to Ground Balance = 0 to quiet it down but rather just do an automatic balance procedure (what many refer to as a "Ground Grab", wouldn't it be nice if every manufacturer resorted to this meaningful description & labeling!) to quiet the detector down. My ground is moderate (2-3 bars on the Fisher Gold Bug Pro and also on the Fisher F75 which I think has a bit different scale). Many detectorists have much more severe Fe3O4 content in their ground. I'm wondering if those of you with different ground situations than mine have compared GB = 0 to custom GB settings. Did you find one better than the other?

How much does that apply to ground that contains moderate to significant mineralization? I realize we are on the XP forum so discussing the ML Equinox's characteristics is inappropriate. Let's move this discussion to the proper place. I'll start a thread now.

How did you figure the volume? An X-Ray Fluorexcence (XRF) measurement would be nice to see, but sometimes you have to pay for those, and it needs to be a spectrometer calibrated to the high atomic number elements (like gold and the Platinum Group Metals = PGM). If your density measurement can be verified/confirmed, I'd say it's pretty sure to be PGM. All of those are valuable. I'm guessing a natural PGE nugget (just like gold) would carry more value than the simple bullion prices would indicate. Collectors are our friends!

About time you came around to my request from a few posts ago. ? Another check would be to put an ohm-meter (multimeter) on it to see if it conducts. I had a similarly (sorta) looking rock I found in the Merced River (California motherload country) which gave a strong signal right at the ferrous-nonferrous boundary for dTID, but only on VLF's. With my TDI (PI) it was dead silent. Using an ohm-meter it showed near zero resistance. I'm pretty sure it had a lot of graphite in it.

So specific gravity is 2.66? With measurement uncertainties taken into account this measurement alone is consistent with, what, 75% of all rocks? (Just my WAG...) Definitely not pure magnetite, though (s.g. = 5.17). The mystery continues.... I'm curious what kind of a signal (if any) your Garrett Sea Hunter (PI, right?) gives.

Any idea what day (and time) the photo was taken? A Sunday or holiday (we just had a big one...) would explain what's shown.

OK, it appears I've applied selective memory. From now on I'm going to shorten that to SeM. That shouldn't confuse anyone....

I guess talking semantics (which I'm about to do) is a further degradation of time while we impatiently await the release of these two highly anticipated detectors. However, in N/M's defense, I recall that before the Equinox was released there were two kinds of multifrequency discussed and delineated: Selectable Multifrequency and Simultaneous Multifrequency. I still use SeMF and SiMF in my posts but just about everyone else has gone the easy route. So is SiMF any more MF than SeMF? The slopiness and ambiguity in metal detector parlance frankly annoys the crap out of me. What does "all metal" mean? What does "horseshoe on" mean? What is noise and what does 'noise cancel' mean? What's the difference between VDI and TID? (I think there is a difference here, but not the way most people use these, seeminly interchangeably). It sometimes seems that manufacturers vainly reuse a common term to mean something different or create a new term which already has an exact word/phrase to cover it. Plenty of blame to go around, IMO.

Your sites sound exactly like mine -- lots of overfill/backfill likely hiding old coins too deep to be picked up with IB/VLF's, best ground paved over, land gone from public to private, cherry picked by previous detectorists, etc. And they've left me a few crumbs but it ain't the 1980's anymore. ? You probably know this, but turning down the recovery speed can really help with EMI sometimes. I run RS = 4 as my default (maybe I need to experiment with RS = 3...). Very seldom does the Noise Cancel feature help me because most of the time the EMI is too broadband, I think from power lines -- often buried in curb strips. I'm going to write up a post about recent experience with 4 kHz on the Eqx, but it's in no way as good as MultiFrequency, at least in my sites (moderate ground ==> 2-3 bars Fe3O4 on the Fishers). Keep us posted on your finds!

I'll go a bit more off topic -- actual building and mechanical tools. I was told by a friend who was born and grew up in Germany that apprentices there had to prove they could excel with hand tools (like files) before they were allowed to advance to power tools. My mom's father and brothers were all home builders and one of her brothers took me under his wing, teaching me the trade. He used hand tools when appropriate and only used power tools when those offered a significant edge (particularly time saving). The other day I made some wheel chocks from a 2x4. Seven cuts all made with an 8-point crosscut Disston D23, inherited from my uncle. (His name is stamped in the handle and etched on the blade. Maybe one from his days in high school shop class?) There's something about sound and feel of a hand saw slicing through wood that no power saw can match.

Yes, non-coins can be interesting, occasionally valuable (not here though), and always reveal something about a site's history. That cask/barrel tap was a neat find at the Wheatfield. The item below it, though, has a dinosaur image (actually on both sides) and is a modern souvenir marked with two places -- Plant City, FL and Cave City, KY. Also from the Wheatfield. Other interesting items in the photo are a brass disk from site 3 with what looks like a bullet hole through it (just to the right of the dino), a large aluminum lid with a women's high heel shoe emblem and a woman in a long dress (both embossed) -- could this be a condom tin lid?? That also was from the Wheatfield. The rusty iron wheel with four equally spaced holes in the upper center came from Site 2. It might be off a heavy duty cart but I think it's more likely a flywheel off of either a toy or some kind of scientific demonstration apparatus. Yep, small one lower right (from Site 2) off of a shoe? Others are probably also from clothing but I do get a fair amount of horse tack in sites that were once farms/ranches/etc. That turns out to be most of my parks and schools since quite a bit of Indiana was settled and converted to tillable or pasture land prior to the Civil War and that practice continued through the remainer of the 19th Century. Thanks to all for your responses.

My 2021 New Years Resolution (and I think my 2020 one, too) was to find sites I hadn't previously searched rather than to put all my eggs on cleaning up what's left of familiar sites. (I still do some of that, too, though). This year I've already reported on four previously unsearched (by me, that is) sites, all which have produced. More on those in my year end summary in a month. Early in November I decided to make one more try for 2021 at finding some new ground and with the help of HistoricAerials.com, I found four promising locations. I'm going to simply refer to them as sites 0, 1, 2, and 3. Site 0 is the easiest to report on. From early 20th Century USGS topos it was a small (one room?) school that disappeared around 1950. A drive by showed that not only is it now a private home, but that the intersection where it was located has been seriously reworked, i.e. enlargened. At best it falls into the 'private permission' category and I'm not at all good at those. Site 1, with added help from Google searching, was an elementary school and high school back at least to the eary 30's. The HS closed in the mid 60's and the elementary school a few years later. The building is still there but there are mixed signals as to whether it's public or private. Some threatening signs indicated at least part of it is currently privately leased, but the a__holes are very vague about what is and isn't theirs. I spent 1 1/2 hours in a couple spots with promising results (see photo of good finds below) but I just didn't feel comfortable. There was a lot of coming and going by various groups (sports participants, church goers, etc.) and although no one bothered me I just didn't feel welcome. Site 2 was another small elementary school. I don't know when it was formed but it appears to also go back to early in the 20th Century. I think it closed around 1960. It's now a small public park and community center. Unfortunately both my visual (internet) research as well as detecting and viewing the site in person makes me think it's been heavily reworked since the school was torn down. First hunt there, 3 1/2 hours, produced 2 Wheaties and a sterling ring, plus a fair amount of modern coins and trash. That was my survey hunt. My second trip there was intended to focus in on a trashy but potentially less overfilled part with the ML Equinox and 6" coil, but that wasn't very fruitful. About 2 hours in I was approached by an elderly (81 year old) friendly neighbor who filled me in on some history. He said he had attended that school as a youngster (presumably around 1950) and told me that although several detectorists had been there before me, as far as he knew they had never searched a slope near one edge of the property where he said he used to play and that bulldozers hadn't bothered. Now that's the kind of info I like to hear! I thanked him and headed over there. For now I'll leave it at that and tell more in the show-and-tell portion of this post. He twice more returned and told me of some other nearby sites I should search but they all sounded like private properties. Site 3 is an active, modern elementary school which replaced an early one built around 1955. I was able to go there during their Thanksgiving recess. Unfortunately this site has been heavily reworked since the original school was razed and it also feels like it's been rather thoroughly searched. In 7 1/2 hours (two days) of hunting I only found 2 Wheats plus one other oldie (more on that shortly). OK, here is the eye candy you've been waiting for: Top two items are from Site 1 -- 1983-D nickel-clad half dollar (only my second ever) and a necklace chain and pendant which was clean but unfortunately apparently (magnetic) nickel plated copper. Both were reasonably shallow but not on the surface. Based upon these finds I don't think this part of this site has seen detectors in 2 or 3 decades. Now the finds are in pairs from lower left. Site 2 produced this sterling ring with stones (don't know if real, but they look nice to my eye, and especially to my wife who has already claimed it!). Thanks to that 81 year old former student I found the 1899 Indian Head Penny on the virgin slope where he used to play. Turns out the EMI was so bad I had to use 4 kHz on the ML Equinox and its dTID rang up in the high 20's (silver coin zone), not 20-ish where they show up in MultiFrequency. It was only about 4 inches deep. Next two (silver alloy 'Warnick' and broken piece of jewelry) were found at Site 3, showing that there are a few spots which haven't been backfilled. The broken piece showed up in the USA nickel zone (dTID 12-13 on the Equinox) and given its size I think this is high conductive composition. Both ends show that they were broken off something larger (bracelet?) and the fact there is zero copper coloring there makes me think this could be a silver alloy. Finally, the last two items on the right were found this past week in my bread-and-butter 2021 site, the 'Wheatfield', not one of these four recently reserached sites. The ring has a men's wedding band shape but is marked '925' so sterling. (My wife has claimed it, too.) The IHP is a 1901. In my two times searching there last week I found 5 Wheat pennies each day (3 hour hunts per day). I expect to spend my last few hunts this year at that site. I'm sure there are more oldies and I'm shooting for a record year (quantity) of Wheat penny finds. I only need 5 more to tie last year's 103. The above picture is the 'good'. Here are the 'bad' -- interesting (?) non-coin finds from these four sites: And if you want to see 'ugly', you'll have to await a future post.

There's a parallel train of thought/experience, and that occurs when you use the same detector with different settings (and/or different coils). I've 'proved' to myself in both directions. I've found keeper coins, easily discernable, with the same detector, coil, and settings in previously hunted (by me) areas. In those cases I've concluded that it wasn't the detector but rather I, having not gotten the coil over the good target previously. But the second situation is the flipside. I've gotten a good signal (or at least a signal good enough to investigate) in one search mode that another mode just doesn't pick up. And in this case I was detecting in ground that I'm pretty sure had seen not only other detectorists, but more importantly detectorists who knew what they were doing. My conclusion in that case was that the settings of the detector eaked out the good find (silver quarter on edge at 6"-7", possibly and even likely with iron nails/wire close by) rather than no one previously getting a coil over that difficult target.

I think we've finally found Ponce de Leon's 'Fountain of Youth'. Or maybe it's just an example of relativistic time dilation. When a new detector is announced, time slows down to a crawl. We're able to create hundreds of posts speculating, hoping, even praying for the next breakthru. (I'm not singling anyone out here and, living in a glass house, I'm certainly not throwing any stones.) There is a hint in another recent thread here that gives me hope I'll soon(?) be seeing what I'm hoping for -- better separation/unmasking without sacrificing dTID or sensitivity/depth. Well, maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.... I don't know when was the last time that two new, competing, state-of-the-art detectors were being released simultaneously (let's hope that's what is going to happen, and soon). Double the anticipation, speculation, hope,.... Come on, N/M; come on XP! Enough teasing, at least let your field testers loosen their lips.

I have two guesses. Do I need more than that?

Our brains sometimes pick up clues that our consciousness otherwise doesn't notice. I've heard people call this 'intuition' or 'instinct' or other more mystical things, but IMO it's just the power of our brains sorting through noise to find a signal -- high level pattern recognition. This half dollar is a good example. But regardless, I'm certainly in the "If in doubt, dig it out" camp. For every 'trick' I've noticed or read about to avoid digging trash I've found an exception. And I bet I still leave a few in the ground. Isolated good targets in mild ground, horizontally orientated are easy. It's when you add complications (mineralization, on-edge target, nearby trash) that those tricks don't work anymore. That's when our brains, both the conscious and sub-conscious parts, really earn their keep.

I wonder if differential expansion has an effect. Basically, most materials shrink or expand with changes in temperature (typcially shrink on cooling and vice versa on heating). Two neighboring materials in contact may have different coefficients of expansion and thus change sizes differently when cooled (or heated). This *could* be exacerbated in lake or ocean water if that water is consdirerably colder than the air temperature. The coil ears are plastic; they mate with some kind of synthetic rubber gasket; those gaskets are in contact with the shaft (usually plastic); all are held together with a bolt and nut (again, usually plastic). If the coefficients of expansion are matched or at least close then this won't be an issue. Are they?

I guess that makes you a 3rd generation detectorist. Cherish those experiences -- they are educational, but so much more.